Various ways of protecting articles during storage or shipping are known in the art. Articles such as furniture, for example are often shipped with various protective barriers or soft materials covering portions of the furniture. Sometimes, these protective barriers and materials occupy a lot of space or can increase the cost of transporting these materials significantly. Furthermore, while protection from movement of the article within a shipping container is protective in and of itself, some parts of articles being shipped are more susceptible to damage. For example, the corners or edges of an article are more prone to damage from impact rather than from pressure.
Various edge protectors are known in the prior art, ranging from angled cardboard or molded pulp to custom produced foam protective products. Often, the more impact resistant an edge protector is, the more materials, complexity of manufacture, or use of different materials are required. This leads to an increase in packaging costs, often times a larger footprint required for packaging or transport, and an overall environmental impact that could be improved upon. More basic edge protectors that are used often provide insufficient protection against impact. Other prior art solutions lack axial strength, and while able to handle loads, the edge protectors themselves can be damaged when subject to axial loads such that the protection they later provide is tainted by permanent deformation that has been caused due to such axial loads.
Finally, it would also be beneficial for an edge protector to provide stack strength such that the edge protector can be used with palletized products, in addition to being used within a transport container.